quit brainrot. unfollow trolls. read essays. go down rabbit holes. have a calendar. maintain a todo list. read old books. watch old movies. turn on dnd. walk with intent. eat without youtube. chew more. train without music. plan for 15 mins. execute. organise your desk. take something seriously. read ancient scripts. act fast. find bread. eat clean. journal. save a life. learn to code. read poetry. create art. stay composed. refine your speech. optimise for efficiency. act sincere. help people. be kind. stop doing things that waste your time. follow your intuition. craft reputation. learn persuasion. systemise your day (or don't). write. write. write. write more. iterate violently. leave your phone at home. walk to the grocery store. talk to strangers. feed the dogs. visit bookstores. look for 1800s novels. experience art. then love. sit with a monk and offer them lunch. don't talk shit about people. embody virtue. sit alone. do something with your life. what do you want to create? turn off your mind. play. play a sport. combat sports. notice fonts in trees. fall in love. notice patterns on a table. visualise it. talk to people with respect. don't hate. be loving. be real. become yourself. cherrypick your qualities. discard the useless. rejections aren't permanent. invite what aligns. accept what does not. read great people. be different. choose different. do great work. let it consume you. lose your mind. value your time. experience life.
This is going to be a short one. But i feel like it will help a lot of people understand this mysterious faith.
I've gotten so many questions regarding deity worship in slavic paganism across social media and with real life friends, which is absolutely okay, i love answering questions.
But the thing i always tell people is:
In Slavic paganism, deity worship is not the first priority.
Many medieval historians who wrote chronicles and books on Slavic pagan customs wrote about this.
Slavic paganism is a nature based religion. And while worshipping deities is always important, in slavic paganism there are many other aspects of non-deity related worship and veneration that we should know about.
Some of them being:
1. Ancestor veneration.
2. Nature (spirits) worship
3. House spirit worship (Domovoi and Kikimora the house spirits)
Another big thing in Slavic paganism is community. Of course, in this modern day world, community of friendly pagans is hard to find. Social media making it a bit easier.
But community doesn't always need to have same beliefs. I'm sure many non-slavic pagans (such as hellenic polytheists) would love to learn more about this faith. And so would many atheists and christians.
Of course, this is NOT to say that deity worship is not important. But this is some parallel that slavic paganism has with other pagan paths. People in modern day like to prioritize deity worship, as they believe that deities are more divine and powerful than nature spirits such as rusalki, vili (fairies), house spirits and mythical creatures.
But we gotta remember that ALL those beings are still divine. And while that one river spirit you've been talking to doesn't know as much as Perun does on the topic you want to learn, they still know much more than us.
Divine beings aren't omnipotent, but I'm sure they know a lot of things better than us, and know some things about us that that even our subconscious mind does.
i want to make a larger substack post on this subject soon, but i'm finalizing my permaculture design for my property right now and this is on my mind!
first of all, what is permaculture? in Practical Permaculture: For Home Landscapes, Your Community, and the Whole Earth, the author describes it as "meeting human needs through ecological and regenerative design".
permaculture design is already based around using natural systems as a frame of reference, such as fractals, spirals, grids, networks, & tessellations. building systems based on a bee hive or on leaf veins gives an extra connection to that source which we can imbue and utilize magically.
i also think that the entire property design process can become a hypersigil, alike any "art form". enchanting while designing, and integrating enchantments into the designs, can be done throughout the length of the design process.
specific locations and species/cultivars of trees and plants may be used as a wide-ranging hypersigil, or features may be designed to be specific altar spaces.
when you eventually set up gardens, or other designated areas of vegetation, you can also enchant and commune with the plant and seed spirits as they are planted. identification and pilgrimage through wooded areas may be followed by devotion. wards and other spellwork can be planted or affixed within structures and gardens put in.
i hope this post provided any of you with some ideas! if you are a witch interested in permaculture, i have some book recommendations under the cut:
Practical Permaculture: For Home Landscapes, Your Community, and the Whole Earth; by Jessi Bloom & Dave Boehnlein
Holistic Homesteading: A Guide to Sustainable and Regenerative Lifestyle; by Roxanne Ahern
The Vegetable Gardeners Guide to Permaculture: Creating an edible ecosystem; by Christopher Shein (available on Internet Archive)
if you are an urban witch i'd highly recommend Toolbox for Sustainable City Living; by Scott Kellogg & Stacy Pettigrew (available online)
Choosing to build a home, temple, or business somewhere takes thought and consideration. World wide people have devised practices around this, spiritual and otherwise. In some cases part of building practices might account for the learning, appeasing, clearing, and/or working with spirits that may already reside there.
Finding where to settle:
The Balkan region has many names for place -bound spirits (stiia, stihio, stuha, stoikeion) which could be understand as forgotten dead, fiery snakes, or house spirits. In Russian and Ukrainian lore there is the domovoy (domovoyk, domovoi) a house spirit associated with ancestral spirits, and the house addar/snake who resides behind the stove and brings blessings. There's the Greek Lares, the UK's brownies, and the German kobolds and dracs. Throughout Europe people have been naming these land spirits as well as practices for dealing with them.
Lots of thought was put into finding places to build a home, consideration was especially given to the dead or spirits already occupying a space. Making sure not to build where the dead are laid, and sometimes asking guidance or permissions from ancestors. Ukrainian mountaineers taught this, as well as to never build houses at crossroads or places pathways crossed, or build atop the old ruins of a heating stove (as this means there is already a spirit occupying this place). There was also an avoidance of building on a plot of a land with lots of tree stumps, with a focus on if the stumps were red after being cut, suggesting they were bleeding.
Certain spaces remained untouched and left sacred to spirits. Certain groves, mountains, or rivers were set aside to the spirits of the gods of these places. Special groves where a tall oak grew, rivers where spirits are said to bathe, or caves in the sides of mountains where trolls or dwarves were said to live. These places remain unbuilt on for a while out of respect for the beings already occupying them. Priests moving through the area encountered forests so sacred in rural Lithuania that you could not enter or touch certain woods with iron (tools for cutting). If someone did the penalty was death. The fear of place spirits was very present.
Some good omens to build in the Baltic region are where you find black ant hills, where a cow has loved to lay, and where the future house-owner dreams of a domestic animal. A new moon was also a good omen for construction. Romans would often favor the side of roads for building homes, as money and people flowed through here. Places away from others such as the edged of fields were avoided due to being away from the hum of life. The Romans also avoided building at crossroads or over cemeteries.
A few ways were utilized to find a spot to build. Sometimes the materials used in the building were used to divine a location, such as the case with the church of Siuxt (Kirkland, Russia) where a rock placed to begin building rolled down a hill in the night, so they continued building where the stone landed. The stone had been placed close to another property, and it seems the spirit already residing there didn't want company. Other times an animal would be allowed to wander until exhaustion an a building was built there, or a log was tossed into a river and where it stopped they built. Sometimes the throwing of logs or floor boards into water from a prior home was done in honor of a pagan god, letting their new home be decided by the divine.
When spirits occupied a place:
Sometimes a place is already occupied by spirits, so people have devised ways of laying claim to these spaces. This has been done similarly to using a piece of wood of from an old home, except with a coffin in the case of Kveldulf heading to Iceland. He was dying and asked that his coffin be tossed into the sea to show his son where to build there home. This was a way for his spirit in death to claim and become and rooted ancestor there for his future descendants. Other times a large staff/stick is driven into the ground and the land is declared to be where a son will build their home.
Fire was also a common element for claiming land from spirits, as it's solar properties was believed to drive away chthonic land spirits. In folklore it turns dwavres to stone, and stopped elven islands from sinking underwater. Norwegian king Harald Fairhair helped codified rites called "eldvigning" or "consecrations by fire", but there is reason to believe it predates him. In one example a fire is kindled and spread from sunrise to sunset, and the land in which the individual encircles with fire becomes theirs. A flaming arrow was another option, being shot over the land that is being claimed.
Circumambulation was also a common tactic and oldest forms for laying claim to space. As the act of encircling something is both protective (creating a barrier) and a declaration of sacredness of what is being protected inside. This holiness could be due to the presence of a god, saint or holy relic, spirit or dead relative. Circumambulation was combined with the use of fire and bells to excise claimed land and remove any unwanted spirits. Moving in a circle making noise to tare down protections can also be seen in the bible's story of Joshua, where the Israelite move in a circle around Jericho to tare down it's walls. Similar methods were used by witches in North Berwick England where they walked counter clockwise around a church to unlock it's door and preform their devlish rites in a once holy place.
In Thailand we see similar elements emerge. When a house-builder wishes to build a home he will approach an expert who is an architect, builder, and ritual specialist who is usually a former monk. This expert will decided when to begin building on an auspicious day (between harvest and the next first ploughing). The ritual expert is also responsible preforming various exorcisms of the materials and land, as well as for taking into account the nagas (serpent spirits who reside underground) so the posts being put into the earth can be laid parallel to them prior. Gunpowder is burned and the poles are washed with water to frighten away evil spirits.
House spirits in these contexts were called "sao phaya" to refer to the spirit of a single household, and "cao thi" for the spirit of a small community or ancestral shrine. Other names such as "phi" (which to my understanding means "ghost") also appear.
Beginning construction:
Now that you've made claim to the place you want to build it's time to begin the work of construction. Which often takes consideration of the land spirits and giving scarifies to them so they won't stand in the way of construction. These rituals scarifies and acts being understood as a type of contract with the spirits occupying this place. Throughout history the types of scarifies have changed. Going from young humans, to goats, oxen, dogs, and roosters. These bodies being found below building or inside the walls of homes, churches, and monasteries. These animals eventually replacing humans. Interestingly, these same animals used as sacrifices were also the common forms utilized by these guardian land spirits. Snakes were common forms too, and were believed to be a good omen to find a snake living in the walls of your home. Ancestors were also used as masks by these beings, which relates back to the burying of people or our dead below the home.
Specific trees or stones were also used as the place of these sacrifices. Forming a compact with the surrounding spirits, who revive them in place of the spirits of home. Scarifies in these cases could take the form of leftover food or gruel. These stones and trees were to be left undisturbed, or ill fortunes could befall the family.
The Carpathians used to lay loaves of bread and salt under the four corners of their future homes, as this was supposed to bring wealth. Bread and salt being important parts of inviting a domovoyk into a new dwelling. Again a pact is presented to the spirit, food and substance in return for blessings.
Other rituals in Polissia involve the holding of a feast when the foundation of a building is laid. During this feast guests were expected to not step on the doorstep of the new home, as this was sacred place for the spirit who protects the house which had to brought over. Another held superposition was not to whistle during this period of construction, as this could scare off the spirits here.
Other foundational rites in the Balkans include giving an offering to the future spirit that will live here through the foundation stone when it's laid. If a sacrificial animal is used it becomes the form of the guarding spirit of this home. On occasion someone sick or near death was used for this purpose. In some cases a person's shadow was measured with cotton, and that length of cotton was included in the foundation or walls of the home as a sacrifice. Believing that the individual who's shadow was measured would die soon.
Once the foundation is laid and the posts are set the rest of the building is swiftly put up and filled. From this moment on families will work to keep their house spirits happy thorough the observance of taboos and rituals. To keep good fortune and life flowing into the home.
Summary:
-Land that is already occupied by a spirit is hard to build on.
-Certain omens can signify good land for building.
-When a spirit does occupy a space there are ways of laying claim. Such as through fire, circumambulation, or pacting with them.
-Sacrifice and death helps establish a connection with a place.
-Spirits of the dead and place emerge through characteristics of the house spirit
Sources:
Demons and Spirits of the Land, by Claude Lecouteux
The tradition of household spirits, by Claude Lecouteux
Pagans in the Early Modern Baltic, Edited and translated from Latin by Francis Young
Architectural and political space in Thailand, by Andrew Turton
Stoikheion, stuha, zduhac: Guarding spirits, weather magicians and talisman magic on the Balkans, by Eva Pocs
The Spider (павук) in Ukraine and in Belarus, or Straw Garden (šiaudų sodus) in Lithuania is an ancient pagan traditional decoration for the Christmas and other holidays, made of straw. Such "spiders" are considered talismans and symbols of the universe.
This decoration reflects pagan ideas about the creation of the world, the organization of space: a "spider" that "sweeps" the world - an image of the cosmos-universe.
According to Christian legend, the spider "founded" the entrance to the cave (according to another version around a tree), in which the Mother of God and the Child hid from Herod's soldiers, thus saving the Holy Family.
Spiders were hung in the house in the centre on a long hair from a horse's tail. Thanks to the circulation of air - through the front door and from the burning stove - the big "spider" together turned in different directions, casting whimsical shadows.
The Spider or Garden used to hang over the bed of the newlyweds on the first night because it was believed to have an influence on the growth of the family. When expecting a baby, the mother would tie a straw garden specially for the child and then hang it above the cradle, and the neighbors would bring a bird, angel, racket or small garden tied from straw, which they also used to make the little one happy. The baby used to observe these straw pendants, a mini model of the universe.
During the year, the spider "protected" the owners of the house, and all misfortunes and diseases were "entangled" in its web. Since ancient times, people valued fire as a sign of purification, so a spider that "lasted" for a whole year was necessarily burned before Christmas, and a new one was hung in its place.
In Ukraine, the Spider is nowadays called the Christmas Spider and is especially popular in the north. In Latvia, it has several names: puzurs, ķists, saulīte, lukturi, krīģi, spurguļi. In Lithuania, it has even more names: liktorius (Varėnos, Panevėžio r.); voras (Ukmergės r.); vorys arba pajonkas (Suvalkai, lenk. pająk – voras); pajokas (Kaišiadorys); žarondeliai (Ignalinos r.); reketukas (Kupiškio apylinkėse); rekėžis (Kupiškio apylinkėse); krijelis (Kupiškio apylinkėse); širšuonas (Kupiškio apylinkėse); dangus (Kupiškio apylinkėse); rojus (Kupiškio apylinkėse); karulys (Mažojoje Lietuvoje).
It can be pretty easy to get confused about moon phases, so I'm going to give y'all a little cheat sheet here. It's what I've got in my Grimoire and hasn't failed me since I've started using it. Super beginner-friendly, easy to copy, and you can adjust it to your preference as needed.
Enjoy!
The new moon: Setting new or refreshing old intentions, new beginnings, fresh starts, and trying new things.
The waxing moon: Future planning, confidence in yourself, and being sure in your actions and life steps.
The first quarter: Self-appreciation, pausing to enjoy the moments, reflection on yourself, shadow work.
The waxing gibbous moon: Being mindful of yourself and those around you, honing your skills and talents, taking actions.
The full moon: Manifestation, shadow/inner work, divination, charging magic tools/crystals/moon water.
The waning gibbous moon: Evaluating next steps, reviewing choices and options, and assessing your options/skills.
The third quarter: Releasing worries and troubles, letting hard things go, cleansing mind, body, and soul.
The waning moon: Self-love and self-care, caring for yourself and/or others, forgiving yourself, and surrendering to your next steps.
Although it may not be perfect, this is the chart that I plan m practice around and it's yet to fail me!
As always, practice in a cleansed space and always do your own research. Good luck everyone, and blessed be!
Tips and Commissions for a struggling witch: Ko-Fi
Apply the code WINTER20 at checkout for 20% off all shop items until Nov. 30, 2021!
The goal is to prevent the deportation itself. Stop them from entering the building, stop them from getting to the person, stop them from leaving with the person.
But if that fails, you probably still saved someone else.
Your resistance has delayed the ICE officers - preventing them from abducting others that day - and the frequency of resistance like that means ICE has to commit more officers and security measures to each individual arrest because they might meet strong resistance any time they go in to grab someone. That reduces their capacity a lot.
The ground in these places is too compact for water to soak in during wet season which leads to flooding but digging these holes gives the water a place to stop and soak in. And they’re pushing back the desert with this. By just digging holes.
The new plants also help even more water soak into the ground which reduces flooding even more.
These places also give people places to grow food and graze animals like people are turning completely dry compact desert into a refuge for wildlife and plants and solving regional food insecurity just by digging holes.
The half-circles are called zaï! They're a traditional farming practice in the Sahel desert, and their introduction + reintroduction can be largely credited to Yacouba Sawadogo, the man linked above! He reintroduced and innovated on the zaï on his own farm in the 1980s, and did extensive outreach (along with scientist Mathieu Ouédraogo) to encourage other farmers to adopt them as well.
He also promoted the use of cordons pierreux, which are basically just lines of rocks to reduce erosion, preserve sediments, and increase water absorption.
Immensely cool dude. He's been a personal hero since I learned about him.
So... I've noticed that since I took apart my money bowl, because I wanted to start fresh since I moved, my bank account has been ~draining~, so I figured it was time to remake it.
Here's how I made mine:
Green Dish ~ Financial stability and holding onto funds.
A Lock & A Pair of Keys ~ Financial security.
Selenite ~ Clean, honest money. (No monetary gain from anything shady or at the expense of others)
Malachite Cube ~ Steady and reliable sources of abundance, finances, and wealth. (Can be applied to regular jobs/employment, allowances, aids, etc.)
Malachite Star ~ Unpredictable and surprising sources abundance, finances, and wealth. (Can be applied to gifts, winnings, etc.)
Pyrite (Two Pieces) ~ Financial Growth. (Raises and Promotions)
Raw Citrine ~ Manifesting abundance.
Carnelian Chips ~ Success.
A Dollar In Quarters ~ A physical representation of money for every season.
